


like placing a clean cloth over bloodstains and broken glass

by pawn_vs_player



Series: Select File: DFT://s0u!!3ss_+_d3t3rm1n4t10n [2]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alphys Needs a Hug, Alphys Remembers Resets, Alphys is a good friend, Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/F, Flowey Redemption, Flowey is doing his best, Gen, Implied/Referenced Brainwashing, Manipulation, Nice Flowey, Oh wait, POV Second Person, Secrets, Unconventional Friendship, Unhealthy Relationships, but you don't, muahahahahaha, the 'unhealthy relationships' and 'manipulation' tags refer to Chara & Sans not Alphys & Flowey, why is he so nice he's SOULLESS, yeah i remember why
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-08
Updated: 2017-01-08
Packaged: 2018-09-07 21:34:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,203
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8816962
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pawn_vs_player/pseuds/pawn_vs_player
Summary: The machine doesn't work. Chara reset.This is what happened after.((In which Chara ran a pacifist route, Flowey can't forget and won't forgive, and Alphys is doing her best.))





	

**Author's Note:**

> *In honor of beginning a new, hopefully less shitastic year, the author is excited to welcome you all back to Soulless Route!  
> *While they can't pick a favorite route of DefectTale, this one is a special kind of painful, which makes it specially fun to play with.  
> *You'll see what they mean shortly.
> 
> *The author hopes you aren't too upset by their long break from updating: school and their (pretty spectacularly failed) Big Bang got in the way of DefectTale.  
> *The author hopes you enjoy the story, and that you leave kudos and a comment if you do!

The sun is warm on your petals. You'd managed to forget that feeling somewhere along the line, the soft heat lost in the mess of timelines, of  _f r i s k_ and  _c h a r a_ and *saving and *killing. The little things, the good things, got left behind.

The sun is brighter than you remember, from all those years and RESETs ago, when you walked the earth with your sibling's body in your arms and their soul in your chest. There had been clouds, then; you had asked Chara why the sky was gray instead of the bright blue they described, and they called the gray and white clouds. 

There are very few clouds today. The sky is wide and blue; the sun is bright and burning white. Chara had always colored the sun yellow. When you asked why, they had shrugged and told you it wasn't yellow, really, but everyone called it yellow. They didn't know why anymore than you did.

You bow your head, roots rustling under the earth, branching out along new pathways. You need a new travel network for the surface.

You've never gotten that far before. You'd never gotten up here before. 

You can't help basking in it. You can't decide whether or not taking such pleasure in the surface is a good thing, since you have no doubt that Chara's going to RESET and start killing everyone again, but you can't help yourself. You know having such good memories will hurt more when you return to the hell of the RESETs, but while you're on the surface you may as well enjoy yourself. Stars know you won't get enjoyment anywhere else.

The grass is soft, softer than the golden flowers in the Ruins, in New New Home. It's green, a color hard to find under the earth. You like green, you decide. Grass green in particular, not the green of your leaves and vines, not the green of Chara's sweater, not the green of Undyne's magic- grass green. Real green. Living green. 

It is the grass that alerts you to the person walking up the hill to your left, tremors of impact traveling along their stems to your roots. The steps are quick- short legs- inelegant- clumsy- and broad- wide feet. The earth winces under curved toes- clawed feet.

The person crests the hill. You do not turn. "What do you want, Alphys?"

She settles onto the soft green beside you, lab coat spreading like a cape behind her. You glance at her. Her scales are warmer than usual in sunlight. The glare off her glasses keeps you from seeing her eyes, which makes you uneasy. Her hands dig into the ground as she leans back, face tilting up. You see her eyes close as she turns her profile to you.

"A l-lot of things," she answers quietly. "You know m-most of them b-by now."

You huff, turning away. The town of Ebott, now mostly populated by monsters, spreads out below you. The coastline shimmers, hemmed with golden sand. The town is small, but even from up here in the foothills, you can see ant-sized cars, smoke drifting up from chimneys, and little dots of monsters roaming the streets. It's quiet up here, except for the birds and Alphys' breathing. "And most of them are stupid."

She sighs. "Most of th-them are fruitless or p-petty," she corrects you. "That d-doesn't necessarily m-make them stupid."

"No, the fact that they are stupid makes them stupid," you reply. 

This is easy, this harsh back-and-forth. This is familiar, honed through dozens of RESETs. 

The other stuff is newer. You're never prepared for Alphys to open her mouth and say things like- "H-How are you holding up?"

Your leaves rustle. "Why do you care?"

"You know w-why," Alphys sighs. It's true. You do know. You just... can't quite believe it yet.

"I'm fine," you tell her. 

"I don't b-believe you," she replies. "How are y-you holding up?"

"I'm  _fine_ ," you insist, even though both of you know it's a lie. "Besides, you're the one who has to see them every day."

Alphys flinches. A part of you is sorry. A part of you is pleased.

"They're easier than h-h-him," she admits. You flinch, then.

That's true. Seeing them smile without malice, hug M- _Toriel_ and D-  _Asgore_ , walk around without a knife in sight in clean clothes- it's awful, and hard, but not nearly as terrible as seeing Sans walk around like he's actually dead. Cracking puns clearly on autopilot (at least, clear to those who know the signs), always following at Chara's heels and doing whatever they ask, slowly but steadily isolating himself so that when Chara and he finally cut their ties entirely, no one will realize until too late. Seeing his eyesockets blank, seeing his statue-still smile... 

It makes you sick.

You bow your head. The sun is warm on your petals, but you feel chilled. "What are you doing here, Al?"

You don't have the strength, right now, to play the game.

Her clawed hand is gentle on your head. "W-waiting. Observing. H-hoping. Same as y-you."

You sigh. "You're sure-?"

"Yes," she says, voice heavy. "I-I've looked so many times, r-run the calculations more than I c-can count. Trapped in the l-loop as we are, there's nothing w-we can do to stop it." Her fingers tremble. "W-w-we're prisoners."

You glance at her. Her scales are ashen, her face grim. Her hand is still trembling.

You raise a vine to curl gently around her arm. "Alphys. Hey."

Her eyes glint behind her glasses in the sunlight.

"Chara changed the loop," you point out. "Just by being d e t e r m i n e d . And between us-" You shoot her a tiny grin. "-I think we've got plenty of that."

Her smile is wobbly as she wipes her eyes under her glasses. "I've l-looked into that," she says gently, "a-and I haven't found anything."

You don't let that dissuade you. "But maybe you don't need to," you point out. She blinks at you.

"What a-are you talking about?"

Your smile grows a little. "You said that each time a loop changes, a new timeline is created. Right?"

She nods. "Like a- a tree branching out in a-all directions. E-every possibility explored."

"Right," you agree. "So, there's gotta be a timeline where you figure out how to fix Sans."

Alphys freezes. Her eyes brighten behind her glasses.

"All I'd n-need to do is find a w-way to contact that me," she murmurs, staring blankly into the distance as her brain whirs. "That's, that might b-be easier, our t-timeline's unstable already, sh-shouldn't be too hard to poke another hole i-into spacetime and m-make it lead somewhere..."

You grin. "See? We aren't that helpless."

Alphys pauses in her muttering to look at you. She smiles brighter than you've seen since Chara took Sans.

"Y-you're a good friend, Flowey," she tells you firmly, and stands up. You are stunned silent as you watch her head back down the hill to her shared house with Undyne.

The sun is warm on your petals, and the pit inside you where your soul should be glows warmer with Alphys' words. 


End file.
